Sunday, February 27, 2005

Incredibly, an Israeli police document examiner (a forensic document specialist) has largely pieced together the diary of Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut who perished during the reentry of the space shuttle Columbia.

A small heap of paper somehow survived the fiery disintegration of the shuttle, a 38-mile fall to Earth and two months of exposure to rain and sun in a Texas field.

Israel Police Department / AP file

"Scientists used computer image-enhancement technology and infrared light to read the charred and tattered pages and pieced some of them together like jigsaw puzzles."

"The diary, written in black ink and pencil, covers only the first six days of the 16-day mission."